Scientists reveal process of ancient volcanic eruption that turned a victim’s brain to glass

The young man was found dead in a small room near the entrance Augalis HallCivil command from Freedmen, such as Lodge Freemasonry. Perhaps he was a security guard. It was called the guardian for this reason. Instead, it may also have come from the outside, as it was running in the city of Hercules, where it was overlooked by the black ashes and toxic fumes after its eruption. Mount Vizov In 79 AD, with no idea about his whereabouts, he only searches for shelter in a evacuated place, and finally collapsed a face down on the wooden bed.

The last fatal remains of his fellow Hercules are mostly found where they fell, and several hundreds of crowded on the beach and in their beach rooms, and are supposed to be hoping to escape from the potholes that are immersed by the laggetal deposits.

The remains of the young young man who were mostly remained in 1960 were found by the director of the archaeological site that remains from the old city. Along with volcanic ash, his brain and spinal cord contained the mysterious archaeological treasure: small, shiny black glass.

Not until 2020After about 1941 years of breathing, the last breathing, has scientists proved that the brain of the unfortunate volcano victim, or parts of it, may literally turn into a glass-like-mixed-mixed substance in a unique example on the natural alchemy. As shown last week In nature, scientific reportsThe so -called guardianum is still presenting his secrets, not only provides us with a picture, but a mental film of how the Vesuvius disaster decreases.

Part of the organic glass inside the skull of the deceased individual in Hercules. (Pierre Paulo Petron)“We prove experimentally that the processing process occurred [as a result of ] The very early arrival of the diluted ash cloud that invaded Hercules, leaving a few centimeters of ash and few structural damage, but at temperatures higher than 510 ° C, killed all the population immediately. Dr. Guido Giordano, the main author of the new study and assistant professor in the Department of Science at the University of Rome Terry in Rome, told the Salon newspaper in an email:

After it proved that the glass -like material in the guardian’s brain was originally organic, and in fact it was mixed brain tissue, Dr. Perbolo Petron and other electronic microscopic examination and image processing tools used the man’s perception Actual brain cellsIt was incredibly well preserved, even when it was mostly unloaded on the ash.

In the skull, they found fatty acids that suggest triglycerides in the brain (typical proteins of brain tissue) and typical fatty acids of human hair fats – are all glazed. None of these materials were found outside the skull, in the volcanic ash in which the pink bone remains were buried. The rest of the skeleton, unlike al -Dhaboub, which was partially equipped and preserved in general, was “completely charred and explodes from exposure to severe heat to the apostasy ash, which is a high -speed turbulent cloud rich in hot gases, ash and steam” as Petron described it.

Fragments, or blocks, are a glass luster, which makes them look like an obseidian a lot, a cup consisting of lava when it cools very quickly. Like obsidian, in fact, its edges are sharp but fragments have almost a spiced shape and lack the crystal structure of black metals such as Augite or Tourmaline. Whatever the process that occurred to do so, the original brain tissue has been well preserved so that individual neurons can be already seen using an electronic scanning microscope. It definitely looks like glass. But is it really?

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“To prove that the material is in fact a cup,” said Giordano Salon, “You need to prove first that it was formed through a” glass transition temperature “and then investigating the material processes that were involved. Both glass transition and responsible operations are the focus of this new paper, which is then the absolute” Prémiere “.”

He is not joking. Giordano and his colleagues describe a completely unique process that can already lead to the formation of glass from a human brain. The temperature of the generous flows that buried Hercules and Pompeii were several hundreds of degrees, hot enough to burn and destroy soft tissues easily. This new analysis is alike and analytical alike, trying to explain how it can achieve rapid cooling, or cooling, required to convert brain tissue into glass, when the environment was one of the very hot volcanic activity.

Nothing usually raises attention. Other human residue was present elsewhere in Hercules, iron oxide sediments in the skull, indicating that the fluids in the skull have evaporated with heat, leaving only traces of deteriorating heme proteins.

A picture explained by the remains of the deceased individual site in his bed in Colgum Augustalum, Hercules. This is a section of Figure 1 of the published article. (Guido Giordano et al./scientific reports)Even less poetic, if the brain tissue is found in archaeological discoveries, it usually does not attack, but Saponified – that is, the triglycerides turn into glycerin and fatty acids. Most of us know this soap.

Based on their experimental work, heating samples from the pieces of the skull to different temperatures to determine how the material changed and the exact location of the glass transmission. Its temperature should be higher than the surrounding temperature, and the sooner cooling occurs, the more the temperature of the glass transition.

The researchers suggest that in a very early day on that terrible day, the diluted ash cloud invaded Hercules. He could have left a few centimeters of ash and caused a few or perhaps structural damage. But this brief gas that brought with him incredibly high temperatures, above 510 degrees Celsius, and perhaps higher up to 600 ° C, killing everyone in a moment. The strange bit of tissues, protected by the bone, has survived. In the case of the guardian, his skull provided sufficient protection to prevent the destruction of these tissues, as the researchers suggest.

“The cloud of ash is dispersed and then the brain may quickly cool to the surrounding temperature, and it turns into glass,” Gyodrano told Al -Salon. Although there is no way to experimentally verify the incidence of cooling, the volcanic deposits that buried the remains must be much more cold than the glass fragments, or have returned to the state of soft tissues and disintegration.

So researchers assume that the only possible scenario is that the rapid widening of the ash cloud allows very rapid cooling, ensuring that it is shrapnel before burying it. Just later, perhaps a few hours later, the city and the bodies of all its residents were buried by the hot bundles flow deposits, more physically destroyed but not hot such as that fast and deadly cloud of ash.

Is there any other possible explanation? “I don’t really think that,” Giordano wrote to a salon.

Although we are talking about human tissues, the physical principles that convert the brain into glass are not different from those that create glass anywhere else. The cooling that occurred inside the skull of a single human victim of Vesuvius may be unique and requires a very rare set of conditions, but the process itself is routinely used in the manufacture of glass, when a glass of glass is heated to about 620 ° C in a severe oven, then it is quickly cooled with high pressure explosions from the air. The outside cools much faster than the inside, which creates stress stress on the material and calms it – which makes it stronger – by creating a structure in which the center is in tension but the outer part is compressed.

Dr. Robert Man, an anthropologist in the forensic medicine at Hawaii University, examined between 15,000 and 20,000 human skulls and skeletons throughout the floors profession, mostly focusing on modern remains. This included the first victim of serial killers, Jeffrey Damer and the victims Thai Ted Bondi; The soldier is not known from the Vietnam War, who was eventually identified as the first Lothanant of the Air Force Michael Joseph Blasi; And victims of 11/11. But he also has great interest in old skeletons, and last summer examined structural residue from Pompeii, buried the old Roman city more famous and preserved under volcanic ash, such as Hercules, when Vesuvius erupted. Man is fascinated by the discovery that the helicopter can mix that brains can be narrowed and determine the set of complex conditions necessary to cause this phenomenon – and it warns that it is always possible to have another factor or a possible scenario that we have not thought about – yet.

“The tissue, the work of the microscopic examination, indicates that there is an issue in the brain that turns into glass, but I think what people will wonder, and they may speculate on it and reach their own scenarios. Perhaps this is not the correct interpretation. Only seven people.)

Once we know that glazed brain tissue is something we are He can Man said we could start finding more examples of this unique process. Then there is always the possibility that some other scenario, along with the disguised cloud, rapid ash, to the minds supported by other evidence.

“I always marvel at the fact that we are doing a human anatomy and a great anatomy for hundreds of years, and we still get stuck in something, to this day, we go well, we have never seen this before, and before you stumble it, there is no way to know that it exists, right?” Man explained.

He said that Giordano’s research is not only related to their colleagues like volcanic scholars, but also the subject scientists and forensic medicine. It may also be useful for emergency planners. As you see Books in review 2019 Among the effects of the eruption on the inhabitants of Hercules, there are “decisive effects on the danger of the current day of results similar to about three million people living near the volcano, including the metropolitan Napoli.”

This is not all death (or prosperity!) And depression.

“By understanding the formation process, I think there is also a great lesson at the present time,” said Giodrano. “In active volcanic areas while it is necessary to evacuate all people who may be on the path of pH, it is also necessary to suit houses as shelters capable of resisting heat, such as doing forest fires. This way, any person should be arrested in a diluted hot ash cloud, [as] The regrettable ancient Roman condition in Hercules could have been the possibility to survive and wait for the rescue. “

It seems that it is magic for a person to turn into glass, but it is much better if studying the guardian can prevent evaporation, dilution and glazing of anyone else.